The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-06-16
PROHIBITION.

PROHIBITION.
Mr.. EDITOR: At regular commune
cation of the Williamson Division Sons
of Temperance, the following article was
read by Miss Lizzie Alexander, and On
motion the papers of our County were
requested to publish the same.
(Signed)
D. w. H1oTT,
G.. w. ANDERSON,
W. A. Belts,
Committee.
Rer. j. W. Rogan, in Christian Observer.
.iwoe unto him that giveth his nelghbor drink,
drunken."-Hab. 2: 15
When it was known that proposed
to speak this evening upon the subject OF
Prohibition, was asked by q Christian
man, if thought this was exactly the
right kind of subject for Sabbath's
discourse. doubt not but that the one
who asked this question expressed not
only his own sentiments, but perhaps the
sentiments of others, who are now befor-
me. I have to say, if there are any OF
you who are troubled with any scruples
as to the propriety of my subject, hope,
before am through, by the blessing Of
God, to satisfy you on that score; and if
do not, to relieve you of all anxiety, 1
now announce that I assume all respon-
sibility, ard will cheerfully meet it at
that bar to which We are fastening.
If Prohibition is not proper subject
for a Sabbath's discourse, then pray tell
me what is? Is tnot the business Of the
pulpit to preach dovn evil Of every kind,
and to preach up every thing that has for
its end the moral and spiritual elevation
of mankind? Are we not commanded,
"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet, and show my people their
transgression, and the house of Jacob
their sins ?"
ask you, then, to point me, this even.
ing, to any one form of evil that is auch
a curse to our race, and stands SO much
in the way of its elevation and redemp'
ton as the evil Of intemperance.
Suggest to me, if you can, anything
short of its being brought absolutely to
the feet of the Saviour, that would ba
such a blessing to our country as that of
the complete abolition from it of the
liquor traffic. You may talk about the
many evils that afaict us in this world.
They are all dwarfed into comparative
insignifcance when put by the side of
the giant evil, Intemperance. In proof
of this statement, let me summon on the
witness stand some whose names are
known throughout the world, and whose
testimony cannot be impeached.
Declared Lord Bacon, more than ESQ
years ago:
All the crimes on earth do not destroy
so many of the human race, nor ALLEVIATE
80 much property, as intemperance:
A little more than half century later,
Sir Matthew Hale, one of the Chief Jus.
tices of England, testified that four 6fths
of the murders, robberies, riots and other
enormities, which had happened during
his service of twenty years on the bench,
were the product of strong drink.
DR.. Guthrie, the great Scotch divine
gave utterance to the following language
Before God and man, before the
Church and the world, impeach intem.
perance. charge it as the cause, what:
ever may be the source elsewhere, of
almost all the poverty, and almost all the
crime, and almost all. the misery, and
almost all the ignorance, and almost all
the irreligion that disgrace and afiict
mankind.
Wrote j. G.. Holland:
Men, dread the cholera, the yellow
fever and the small .pox, and take cxpen.
siye precaution against them, while the
ravages of them all in year do not
produce the mischief that intemperance
does in o month.
Gladstone declares:
We suffer more year by year from in.
temperance than from war, pestitence
and famine combined-those three great
scourges of the human family.
Hon. Noah Davis, Grief Justice OF
New York, says:
Among all the causes of crime, intem.
perahce stands out the unapproachable
chief.
Cannon Farrar's testimony is:
There is one most potent enemy at
work against all that we achieve in the
spread of knowledge and enlightenment.
I need hardly name it. Every judge,
every magistrate, every clergyman, every
philanthropist every policeman and gao1el
knows it we'll /; and not one of these will
hesitate for a moment to say that this
enemy is Intoxicating drink.
These are only a few of thousands o.
similar testimonies.
Intemperance is the curse of curses
It enters the home of afluence and hap
piness, and casts over it its dark and de-
structive shadow, turning it into per
feet hell. 1t takes the crown of man
hood from off the honored head of the
family, and drags him down to leve
with the brute. 1t steals away the natu
raj affections and implants in their steat
the passions of demons. 1t takes ths
bread out of the mouths, and the clothe
from off the backs of the children, ant
leaves them sitting in wretchedness ant
want. If it does not hurry its victim, a
it often does, to the commission of some
disgraceful and dreadful crime, it gradu
ally uudermines his constitution ant
deadens his intellect, until finally it send
his body to an untimely grave, and sink
his soul to perdition for the Book de
clares, No drunkard shall inherit th'